CONTROLLING THE SUBSTANCES

Heroin use surges in affluent suburbia

'I would have never guessed that I would be putting a needle in my vein to get high'

Published: 03/28/2012 at 6:55 PM

(SACRAMENTO BEE) — Heroin, a drug most often associated with the gritty back alleys of big cities, is making a surprising surge in suburban, affluent Placer County.

Over the fiscal year that ended in July 2011, 171 people, or nearly 14 percent of patients in the county’s drug treatment clinics, said they were addicted to heroin, up from 8.5 percent the previous year.